An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) has indicted 42 Christians in the Youhanabad lynching case. The ATC Judge Justice Aziz Ullah on Friday, September 30 framed charges against 42 Christian suspects who had been arrested in the lynching case of two Muslim men Babar Noman and Naeem.

These Christians were booked by the police over charges of burning two men alive following two suicide bombings at two churches in Lahore’s Youhanabad. Previously 22 Christians were indicted in the same case. Furthermore, a state counsel has also been appointed by the court in this case. However, the local media maintains the defendants had resorted to delaying tactics as they filed different applications.

Moreover, in the next hearing the court will probably be summoning the prosecution witnesses to start regular trial of the accused. Furthermore, the state prosecutor Anees Shah had requested the court to hear the case on daily basis, ensuing the indictment of the accused persons. After the commotion, police had arrested more than 69 Christians in connection with the lynching of Babar Noman and Naeem.

On March 15, 2015 two suicide bombers had targeted two churches in Youhanabad. Following the bombings, a violence erupted when an agitated mob brutally killed two men. As a result of the bombings, fifteen people including a woman and a policeman were killed.